Battle Field: Earth
by Sci-Fi Raptor
Summary: Set around Volume 27, Skuld loses the first love of her life. A strange pilot lands in Japan. Bell and Urd notice a strange energy source. Keiichi meets a racer possibly better then him. Are all these events related? R
1. Enter The Jackal

**Battle Field: Earth**

**Chapter One:** Enter the Jackal

**By:** Sci-Fi Raptor

**Disclaimer: **I don't own Ah My Goddess or its characters, but I do have rights over Gabriel, Michael, Satan and Talia. My versions of the aforementioned entities of course… I think it works like that, but if it doesn't, then );

Notes (may be long since I am trying to be a little more professional with this one, so if u want to skip, look for the for the story start. However, you may be confused in the story if you skip it, but it is only a suggestion):

I'm assuming that since Kiechii seems to live so close to NIT, he lives in the city Nekomi. I don't really know if it exists or not, but if it doesn't, we'll pretend it does for this fic.

Okay, for the thing that I start each section with, the first line is the greater geographic location, the second is time and the last is local location. Mostly, I wont have the third since I don't know all the places in the Ah!/Oh! My Goddess area. I'm doing this since I'll be jumping around time and space a lot and a lot of people complained about that in my previous fic… _Anything in bold notes some kind of change in scene _(change in time or place)_ or perspective_.

This fic will be severely influenced by Onegai Teacher, and possible GTO. And of course, Mechwarrior/Bettletech. And of course, the Ah! My Goddess world will be used as a template. This will not be an alternate universe, but a different continuation of the manga series somewhere in volume 27. Some things may be slightly different.

A or something in superscript is a cue for you to look at the bottom of the chapter to see some kind of extra information. I will do this either to explain what something is, or to explain something about the line noted on.

About ages, Skuld will be 15-16 human years in this story. I don't really know how old she is in the manga in volume 27, but she looks old enough to be 15-16. Everyone else is whatever age they are at volume 27. I think I kinda butcher Skuld, but I did my best to keep everyone else the way they ought to be.

Oh yeah. Peorth and Welsper have taken a nice long holiday…

Enjoy!     3     ( =

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Data classified:

_When she is crying, she looks so small._

_When she is embarrassed, she is so cute._

_When she is mad, I don't know what to do with her._

_But, because she is like that, I... _

_I, suppose that I..._

_Please God, let me be with her! I will do anything! I will even give it up for her…_

**Nekomi, Japan**

**June 2002**

**A Local Park:**

            "And it's all downhill from here!" Sentaro said, thankfully, as he finally pedaled his bike to the top of the hill.

            "I don't see what's so great about it…" Skuld said, boredly, standing on the bars screwed on to the bike's rear wheel.

            "You'll see," Sentaro said quietly. A devilish smile appeared on his lips as he kicked the bike forward, causing the bike to roll down. Little by little, it gained momentum, until it reached a point on the hill where it was steep enough to cause it to accelerate greatly.

            "Whoo Hoo!!!" Sentaro screamed at the top of his lungs from the adrenaline rush.

            "Ahh!" Skuld screamed in fear, surprised that the mere twenty-meter (about 60 feet) hill could cause one to go so fast. She held on tightly to Sentaro's shoulders instinctively, so that she wouldn't fall off.

            "Didn't I say that this was great?" Sentaro said to Skuld as they reached the bottom of the hill.

            "I still don't see what's so great about it!" she screamed, trying to be heard over the wind whipping at her head, causing her hair to go all over the place. "Why are we still going so fast?" Skuld asked suddenly, realizing that Sentaro should have applied the brakes so that they could maintain a safe velocity for them to be able to make the curve ahead.

            "I don't know! I'm not getting any feedback!" Sentaro admitted.

            "Now you tell me!!!" Skuld screamed. She looked at the rear brake and saw the wire that was supposed to pull it's pads move back and forth as Sentaro rapidly pumped them, but saw that the pad wasn't moving.

            "Your brake is broken!" Skuld yelled to Sentaro as they got closer and closer to the curve. If they didn't slow down soon, they would hit the concrete wall of a bathroom that was sensibly put a few feet from it.

            Seeing that he could do nothing to stop in time, Sentaro braced for impact. In a split second, he felt a sudden jolt pull him back, and he felt himself pulled out of his seat. A moment later, he was on the ground on his butt. Then he heard his bike crash into the wall.

            "What happened?" Sentaro said confused, surprised that he wasn't splattered all over the wall right then and that Skuld was holding onto his shoulders so tightly.

            "Who knows?" Skuld said, letting go and shrugging. Quicker then the eye could see, though, she snatched a feather out of the air before he could notice.

            "Anything hurt?" she asked concerned, seeing that he had bruises all over his legs.

            "Well… so much for that idea," he answered getting a good look at his bike. "Looks like its really busted this time."

            "Dummy! I meant _you_!" Skuld said, sweat-dropping.

            "Huh? Me?" he answered, surprised.

            "I knew it! They do exist!" a man said hysterically, pointing at Skuld. Everyone else just passed them by as if nothing unusual was happening, though some people were staring at the hysterical man.

            "What was that all about?" Sentaro whispered to Skuld as the man started running away, screaming 'I saw one!' really loudly.

            "Heh?" Skuld shrugged with a look of false confusion on her face.

            "Well, I guess we better go home then," Sentaro said, getting up. "My bike is useless."

            "Thanks Noble Scarlet," Skuld whispered behind her as she rose to follow him. A feathery wing quickly came out of her back and flapped, as if to say 'no problem,' and went back in even quicker.

            "Hey, if you want, I can fix it for you," Skuld volunteered.

            "Thanks!" Sentaro said. "But can your _please_ leave the dents this time? It would really suck if they were gone again."

            "No problem," Skuld said, smiling.

**Nekomi, Japan**

**June 2002**

**Morisato Residence:**

            "Skuld! Your boyfriend is here!" Urd yelled from the front door.

            "He's not my boyfriend!" Skuld instinctively hollered back. She quickly went to the front to meet Sentaro. Being that she didn't expect him coming over at this time, she was working on another of her inventions and had grease smeared all over her face. That is why when she greeted Sentaro, he greeted her back by snickering at her face.

            "What do you want…" she said antagonistically. "I told you, you could pick up your bike tomorrow." He stopped laughing and put on a serious face (which was something that Skuld had never seen the carefree boy do before).

            "Can we talk outside?" he asked.

            "Sure," Skuld said and followed him to the back, under a tree. It was the beginning of summer, so the shade under the tree was definitely welcome, _but will be obsolete when I finish the shade-o-matic Mark I, _thought Skuld. "So Sentaro, what's up? You never said that you were coming over today."

            "You know how I was telling you about how my dad was gonna get a promotion?"

            "No," said Skuld.

            "Well, he's been trying to get a promotion for some time now, and yesterday he told me that he got it."

            "That's a good thing, isn't it?"

            "Well, we have to move to America for his promotion…"

            "So? We can still visit each other," Skuld said, not realizing America was almost on the other side of the planet from Japan. (Not that would really matter though, but it would be really weird if she popped out of his cereal or something like that, as in the similar case of when she first met Keiichi…)

**Nearby shipyards**

**Three weeks later:**

            "Goodbye Sentaro," Skuld waved as the ocean liner bellowed that it was about to depart. "You better write!" she ordered. _The last three weeks went by too quickly_, Skuld thought, blinking back tears.

            "Skuld, bye bye!" he waved back. In a few minutes the liner left port and was sailing below the horizon in what seemed like even less time.

            "Don't worry Skuld, I'm sure you'll see him again," Belldandy said, putting a hand on her shoulder. Skuld looked at her older sister and saw her beaming a picturesque smile for support.

            "Yeah," Keiichi agreed, holding Belldandy's hand. Skuld immediately slapped it away.

            "Well, now we can go home," Urd said a few minutes later, yawning. The liner's smoke trail had long since cleared.

            "It is quite a beautiful sunset, isn't it Keiichi?" Belldandy asked Keiichi.

            "Yeah," Keiichi answered absentmindedly as the group walked along the boardwalk to the parking lot.

**Kansai, Japan**

**July 2002**

**Kansai International Airport:**

            Gab smiled as he climbed down the stairs of a Boeing 747. Being cramped in that monstrosity for the last ten hours on a non-stop flight from Egypt to Japan was not very fun. When he finally touched the asphalt of the plane's parking area, he moved out of the way so people could continue unloading from the plane as he stretched. He looked up at the sky and watched a few birds twittering past.

Flashback

            "Talon 00 to base," Gab said on the military frequency. "Mission complete, I am returning home." He activated his autopilot and looked around his canopy. He was still at a low altitude, so he could see the softly rolling savanna of the African plains. Since he had such great vision, he could see a lioness stalking a herd of unsuspecting prey to his West. To his East were a few birds flying together playfully.

Flashback End

            His smile disappear as quickly as it came, making his face go back to its normal stoic appearance. He went through security and customs, retrieved his belongings and finally went to the nearest bullet train station. He waited on the platform until the train arrived and held out a piece of paper with directions he had been holding onto to make sure he was still heading the right way. On top of it, it's heading said Nekomi Tech…


	2. The Calm Before The Storm

**Battle Field: Earth**

**Chapter Two:** The Calm Before The Storm

**By:** Sci-Fi Raptor

**Disclaimer: **See chapter one.****

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**Badr, Arabia**

**Sometime in the early 600's:**

            The two armies stood poised for battle under the scorching Arabian sun. One wore white robes while the other wore black. As if because of experience, a group of vultures circled high above, ready to swoop down at the soonest opportunity.

            One lone man on horseback left from each army and approached the center of the soon-to-be battlefield.

            "Lets see where your God is now!" said the Arab in black.

            "God is great!" the white robed Arab retaliated. Unknownst to the two, as they were leering each other, a pair of invisible entities was quarreling in a similar manner just a meter above them.

            "Demons will own you Gods!" the demon above the black robed Arab said.

            "Just see and try!" the Goddess said, glaring at her.

            The Arabs below them finished the customary leering and went back to their respective sides, followed by their invisible companions. In a view that could see beyond seeing, an army of Gods and Goddesses floated just above the white robed Arabs, just as the Demons and Demonesses floated just above the black robed Arabs.

            Within moments of their return, the signal for attack was given and the four armies charged for the attack. At first, the black-robed Arabs and their Demon companions were winning, but the tides turned when the Angel who had no God or Goddess started crying…

**Nekomi, Japan**

**July 2002**

**Morisato Residence:**

            "Belldandy…" Keiichi said, worried.

            "Oh, sorry, what were you saying?"

            "Are you okay?"

            "I'm sorry, I just spaced out for a bit."

            "Even so, that was a long time for you to be out like that. Maybe you should rest? We can finish this tomorrow," he said, referring to the racing bike that they had been working on for the last few weeks. Keiichi had somehow been enrolled into the "Off Road 2002" championship and he had a week till the race.

            "Sorry…" Belldandy said, apologizing again.

            "Its alright," he said, smiling at her. "Just don't push yourself."

            "Thank you," Belldandy said, giving him a warm smile and headed for her room. On the way, she took a peek into Urd's room.

            "You felt it too, then?" Urd said, knowing what Belldandy was about to ask.

            "Yes," she said in a serious manner.

            "I'll report it to Yaggdrissil," Urd said, making her way to the phone. In a few seconds she made a connection.

            "Hello, this is Urd. I want to report an anomaly in the zone around Japan," she said.

            "Hold on for a moment please," the operator replied and disconnected. Within seconds the signal was back, but it was someone else.

            "Records indicate that there was indeed an anomaly but it was caused by a glitch that we have already fixed, so there is no need to worry," the new voice said.

            "Oh, is that so?" Urd said, not really believing him. "Well, thank you for the reassurance," she said, hanging up.

            "So, what was it?" Belldandy asked.

            "A glitch," she simply said.

            "Is that so," Belldandy said.

            "They're hiding something, I'm sure of it," Urd said.

            "Only the Almighty has the power to do as such, so surely it must be for our protection. There are very few cases when we can lie. Please let it go, Urd," Belldandy said in her innocent fashion.

            "Sure," she said, her fingers crossed. Belldandy continued on to her room and lay down for a while.

            "Now, to see what the big secret is," Urd said to herself as she quietly left the temple. She teleported through the nearest TV and went to the place closest to the signal source. What she found shocked her.

            There was nothing. No signal, that is. Everything was… normal. _Maybe it really was a glitch?_ Urd thought to herself. As a bullet train whizzed by, she thought she felt it again, but decided against it, since it was impossibly weak to be a signal of higher origin (meaning outside our realm, such as where Urd and the gang come from).

            She stayed a while longer, trying to follow its ambient energy, but it was so spread out and dissipated that she ended up going through the same street three times. After a long day of searching, Urd finally gave up, bored of the fruitless repetition and went back home.

            She was greeted by Belldandy with an almost stoic face. _I'm gonna get it,_ Urd thought, grimacing.

            "Did you find anything?" she asked instead of scolding Urd as she normally would have.

            "Nope," she said sighing.

            "Alright. Just leave this alone from now on, okay?" she asked.

            "Sure," Urd said and flopped on the couch and started watching TV.

            _It must be more serious then I thought…_ Belldandy thought worriedly as she saw Urd watch TV without any worries at all.


	3. The Pride Of The Racers

**Battle Field: Earth**

**Chapter Three:** The Pride Of The Racers

**By:** Sci-Fi Raptor

**Disclaimer: **See chapter one.****

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**Secret Location, Africa**

**February 2002:**

            "Talon 00, target is south by southeast at 54 kilometers. Do you have acquisition of enemy defenders?" Alpha leader asked on the private channel.

            "Roger Alpha 01. Enemy Afrikorps have been tagged," Gab answered.

            "All units, fire at will," Alpha 01 commanded. Within seconds, the sky was painted with streaks of white as missile after missile flew after Afrikorp aircraft. In seconds, the radar guided missiles hit most of their targets and filled the sky with flowers of fire and debris. Two enemies had managed to dodge, however, and were in the process of making targeting solutions of Gab and the flight group whose commander had hired him. His computer beeped as it confirmed that a laser guided missile was locked onto him.

            _Well, the fun has just begun,_ Gab thought as he activated his after burners. If he went fast enough, there was no way the spotter would be able to keep track of him well enough. The missile missed as expected, but swung behind him and stuck on his tail like superglue.

            _Ah, so you have the guile to have infrared guidance installed too?_ Gab thought as he sped toward one of the enemy aircraft. His radar was down two contacts: one from Alpha flight group and one from the enemy. Gab reconstructed the scenario in his mind instantly. The friendly was too slow to dodge the enemy missile, while the missiles of everyone else in Alpha group hammered the enemy.

            Gab had an idea on how to get the missile off his back and kill the enemy fighter in one motion. He went into a large turn, careful to keep the missile a safe distance away. But that was getting harder since the missile was many times faster than his aircraft. At the end of the maneuver, he ended up just where he wanted to be: behind the enemy aircraft.

            He cut off his boosters and yanked back hard on the stick. He rapidly gained altitude while losing his momentum, but the missile hit the enemy instead of him. He chuckled, thinking how easily the Afrikorp pilot was fooled by that little maneuver of his. What he did was something that was used more in TV shows then in real life; he confused the infrared guidance on the missile by making it think that the booster of the enemy ship was his when he cut his own off, thereby making it hit the enemy instead of himself.

            "Talon 00 to base," Gab said on the military frequency. "Mission complete, I am returning home." He activated his autopilot and looked around his canopy. He was still at a low altitude, so he could see the softly rolling savanna of the African plains. Since he had such great vision, he could see a lioness stalking a herd of unsuspecting prey to his West. To his East were a few birds flying together playfully. A few seconds later, the sound of anti-aircraft artillery and explosions from 1000-kilo bombs dominated the landscape and ended as abruptly as it started. The birds were nowhere to be seen now; they might not even be alive…

            Bravo group had successfully finished its bombing run. Most likely, however, Bravo group was also shot down in the process. But Gab, didn't care, his mission was over and his payment en-route.

**Nekomi, Japan**

**July 2002**

**NIT:**

            _Man, today was harsh!_ Keiichi Morisato thought to himself as he left his language class. He walked to the parking lot at a leisurely pace as he thought: _Why am I stuck with a language class when I should have graduated last year?_ His face saddened when he remembered: _Oh yeah, English only fulfilled one of my language classes…_

            He sighed as he threw his bag into the passenger pod attached to his motorcycle. _Well, its not that bad_, he conceded. _I still have my job with Chihiro at the Whirl Wind. I _do_ live with four Goddesses and a demon cat. And of course, Belldandy loves me…_

            The last thought put a smile his face as he strapped his helmet on. It also reminded him about a certain promise he made.

Thought Bubble

            "Keiichi!" Belldandy called out, as Keiichi was about to leave the Temple.

            "Yes, Belldandy?" Keiichi said, putting the bike into park.

            "Remember, you promised to come back home by six."

            "I know," Keiichi said, starting his bike again.

            "If you don't come, I'll be angry," she said with that face that made it hard to believe that she was even capable of any such thing.

            "Bye bye," he waved as he started his trip.

Thought Bubble Popped

            Keiichi quickly looked down at his watch. 5:30. _Great…_ he thought. _Well, if I start now, I should just be able to make it._ He grimaced at the thought of an angry Belldandy. Sure, she looked sweet and innocent. But when she got mad… it was as if all hell had broken loose. Keiichi would know; it was that same show of power that had saved his life time and time again. Keiichi ate up asphalt as he sent his motorcycle to its maximum speed at acceleration greater then normal; skid marks trailed him until he stopped doing it.

            He went through the road at speeds that would seem impossible for such a timid vehicle and had entrance and exit velocities on turns that rivaled those of racing motorcycles with ease that could only come from experience and thorough knowledge of the local terrain.

            _It feels good to go so fast. I wonder why I don't do it more,_ he thought. He mentally rebuked himself for even considering it. _Oh yeah… I'm too poor._

            Behind him, he could hear the steady beating of another motorcycle's engine. It got louder and louder as the motorcycle got closer. The other driver was right on his tail, and Keiichi knew that he would probably want to pass him. But they were approaching a blind turn during a busy part of the day and not even Keiichi would take such a big risk (and considering his skill and the fact that he had three goddesses and a demon cat on his back, that says a lot!).

            But no… the other driver was just too impatient and went ahead and passed him. Keiichi was about to think something not-nice in his head about the cyclist when he heard a truck approaching from the other side.

            _Oh no! He's gonna get hit!_ Keiichi thought as he saw the oncoming truck's front fender. The other cyclist was taking too wide a turn to be able to make it in time back to the correct side of the road and not become road kill. Keiichi mentally prepared himself for the grotesque impact he was about to see and blinked just as it was about to happen.  But instead was just treated to the sweet sounds of a blaring horn as the truck went by without incident.

            _What happened?_ Keiichi thought, shocked (and he probably wouldn't admit it, but somewhat disappointed) that the other cyclist wasn't splattered across the road. As the truck's trailer moved away, Keiichi realized what had happened. Just as the truck was about to run over the cyclist, he moved outside even more and squeezed in between the truck and the short metal railing that was the only barrier between him and a sheer cliff. The cyclist finished passing Keiichi at the end of the turn as if nothing had happened as Keiichi gazed at him in awe. Even if Keiichi did have a motorcycle like that (a green Kawasaki Ninja ZX010R), he didn't think he was capable of making such a quick move with such a tight squeeze. Indeed, he was on the road with someone great.

            _Till we meet again…_ Keiichi thought as the mysterious driver pulled away.

**Nekomi, Japan**

**July 2002**

**Morisato Residence:******

            "Hi guys! I'm home!" Keiichi said as he entered the temple he shared with three Goddesses (which, unfortunately for him, was the limit of that relationship).

            "Shuddup!" Urd bellowed, watching some wrestling match. "Greased Lightning is gonna take the championship this episode, so no more noise!"

            "She's been like that ever since that silly show started," Belldandy said, coming out of nowhere, and embraced Keiichi from behind.

            "Ah!" Keiichi almost jumped, not used to suddenly being hugged by Belldandy like that. "I, er, mean… what's this all about?" he said, referring to the out-of-nature hug.

            "I'm just glad you remembered," she said, smiling.

            _It takes so little to please her,_ Keiichi remarked in his head as he looked at the happy expression on her face.

            "So, why did you make me promise to come here by six?" Keiichi said, careful not to sound accusing, even though he didn't really intend to in the first place.

            "I have something special planned for us tonight," she breathed into his ear.

            "Surprise?" Keiichi said, his mind doing a hundred thoughts a second.

            "GET THOSE THOUGHTS OUT OF YOUR HEAD!" Skuld hollered from somewhere.

            "That's it!" Urd cried. Momentarily, a Urd Lightning Bolt could be heard going off where Skuld had spoken. A few moments after that: "WHAT? How did Greased Lightning lose? Dammit Skuld! You made me miss it!"

            "Well, it's your fault that you bolted my lab!" she retorted.

            "Its nice to see that she's finally back to normal," Keiichi said, referring to Skuld.

            "Deep down inside, Urd cares for Skuld just as much as I do," Belldandy said, her hands upon her heart. "Maybe even more…"

            "Don't worry Belldandy. Skuld will always love you," Keiichi said, saying just the right thing to calm down Belldandy's self-destructive thoughts. Belldandy smiled at him.

            "Thanks, Keiichi," she said, pecking him on the cheek. "Now to finish preparing for that party," Belldandy said, heading off to the kitchen.

            _Damn… _Keiichi thought as he went to his room. _That's what she meant by surprise…_

            "What?!" Urd hollered. "Greased Lightning lost to Geekinator!!!"

I cannot say this for sure, but it sounded cool when I wrote it…


	4. Hi, My Name Is Gabriel

**Battle Field: Earth**

**Chapter Four:** Hi, My Name Is Gabriel

**By:** Sci-Fi Raptor

**Disclaimer: **See chapter one.

**Secret Location, Africa**

**February 2002:**

"Talon 00 to base," Gab said on the military frequency. "Mission complete, I am returning home." He activated his autopilot and looked around his canopy. He was still at a low altitude, so he could see the softly rolling savanna of the African plains. Since he had such great vision, he could also see a lioness stalking a herd of unsuspecting prey to his West. To his East were a few birds flying together playfully. A few seconds later, the sound of anti-aircraft artillery and explosions from 1000-kilo bombs dominated the landscape and ended as abruptly as it started. The birds were nowhere to be seen now; they might not even be alive…

Bravo group had successfully finished its bombing run. Most likely, however, Bravo group was also shot in the process. But Gab didn't care, his mission was over and his payment en-route.

After some time, flight group Alpha made their way to their landing strip while Gab headed for his landing zone. He had been lucky so far; no one had attacked him yet. When a Mercenary is done with a contract, no one cares where he lives or dies.

Fortunately, no one cared either way. Maybe he had just left the combat area too quickly for the enemy to acquire him with their radar, or maybe it was just his sophisticated equipment: ECM1, an IFF Jammer2, and radar absorbent paint3. It had cost him a fortune, but Gab always believed that if you had something, you should use it, his case being the not-so-small fortune he had acquired over the years. In a little over half an hour, he could see the cargo ship that was waiting his arrival. He slowed down and used his aircraft's VTOL4 abilities to land on a cleared section of its deck. He quickly got out so that the crew could cover and hide it from prying eyes in the sky.

"I see you have some back unharmed, Talon 00," the ship's captain greeted as soon as he could find Gab. In his business, you didn't have a name, only a call sign.

"Yes, Captain Mulligan," Gab said coolly.

Business-like, the captain continued, "You have received a letter from Japan. It has been left in your bunk. Of course, the air carrier charge has been added to your bill."

"Of course," Gab said bitterly and made his way back to his bunk.

Of course, the letter was already open, but fortunately its contents were still there. Gab was not naïve. He knew what people were like and prepared accordingly. The letter was in a code that was so advanced that a human had yet to break it.

He translated it then to read it to himself. It read:

TO: Agent 1

FROM: ---

Japan, Nekomi Tech.

Ram Jet. Prof. Kakuta

1400 hours.

2500 hours.

Directions attached, residence at your discretion.

Mission Termination Date: ASAP

Campaign Expiration Date: December 31, 2002

He flipped the stapled sheets and saw a bunch of symbols that looked like the artwork of a 2 year old. But the reality was that it was the encoded version of the directions that he was given.

"Might as well get started…" Gab said with a sigh. He started decoding the first few symbols: Nekomi Tech…

**Nekomi, Japan**

**Late September 2002**

**Morisato Residence:**

It had been three months since he left. One month since his last letter. In the beginning, he wrote everyday, then every week. And then they just never came anymore.

Skuld got the picture. What emphasized the picture was the fact that he kept on showing off about his new girlfriend like she didn't matter to him anymore.

Sentaro had obviously moved on; why hadn't she? _I could just pay him a little visit…_ Skuld brooded. She was almost to the point where she was actually going to go through with it, but her robotic creations got hold of her first; literally. Senbei and Sigel grabbed her by the arms and dragged her outside.

"What's wrong you two," she said, squirming. "Let go!" she commanded. Sigel momentarily hesitated, but continued on.

"At least tell me where you're taking me," Skuld said angrily.

"We're taking you on a walk through the park," Sigel said.

"And why is that?" she demanded.

"Simply, you've basically been cooped up in your room making Almighty knows what, and you haven't seen the sun for weeks."

"Well, you could've just asked…" she groaned. Sigel stopped abruptly, shortly followed by Benpei.

"See, I told you we should've just asked," Sigel said accusingly. "Why did I even listen to you!" Benpei drew a tear on his face as if to say 'sorry.'

Sigel replied roughly, "Don't give me any of that-"

"That's enough!" Skuld said, finally unable to stand anymore. "Whatever. Benpei, transform to bicycle mode. Sigel, you ride with me."

"Thank you for giving me the honor," Sigel said, bowing. They both got on Benpei, but before they left, Sigel warned Benpei: "You _better _not get any ideas…"

**Nekomi, Japan**

**Late September 2002**

**A Local Park:**

Three hours later, Skuld and Sigel started walking back to the parking lot where Benpei was parked. Skuld originally wanted to walk with both of them, but whenever the two were within a meter of each other, things somehow got heated.

Since Skuld opted to actually rest that day, she decided that she would only go with one of them. She decided Sigel not because she was a girl but because she hadn't really spent much time with her and she felt that if she did talk, it would be easier with a girl (though Sigel wasn't exactly a girl, but was in somewhat of a similar situation).

Skuld and Sigel spent the day together walking around the park, eating ice cream and watching the sunset from the lake. In what felt like minutes, three hours went by and Sigel grew anxious of leaving Benpei alone for too much longer… not that she cared about it (not openly at least --).

As they approached where Benpei was parked, they saw a kid maybe one or two years older then Skuld inspecting Benpei, talking to himself. She could only see his backside, but she could tell he was about six feet tall and had light blonde hair, cut military style, which was slightly darker then his lightly colored skin.

Sigel was about to charge in and attack, but Skuld stopped her. Instead, she told Sigel to amplify the sound enough for her to hear, but no one else. She started listening in on what he was saying to himself:

"Wow… who would've thought that a gyro of that size could stabilize so much mass? The only way is if its rotational speed was over 5,200hz. Holy! This is ceramic armor. How could a civilian make something like that?"

From what Skuld heard so far, she liked the guy. _At least some people have sense here,_ Skuld thought glumly. Then her mood became depressed as he started pointing out other things.

"This servo shouldn't have this high a gear ratio. These leg servos have too small a gear ratio. But the abdomen, at least, is just right. But then again, the abdominal cage isn't circular enough to provide structural integrity proportional to the strength of the armor! It'll just crumple up when it's hit too hard, which probably isn't much in the first place."

Sigel rose from her place and went forward to confront the person who was belittling her beloved master's work (even if it _was_ Benpei).

"Excuse me," Sigel said impatiently when the person didn't notice her standing next to him.

"Oh, I'm sorry," he said, finally noticing her. "I didn't notice you there. Is this, by chance, yours?"

"Well, it's my master's, who created both of us. And all that stuff you said, my master fixed it all when she made me. Benpei is just a out-of-date piece of metal," she said, pointing at Benpei. "I, on the other hand, am the epitome of cybernetic genius. There is nothing in me that isn't perfect!" she said enthusiastically.

"Except you aren't equipped with breast missiles," he said out of the blue.

"What?" she said, blushing, "How did you know that?"

"I was correct in my assumption then? This creator of your thinks very similarly to how a person I used to know thought."

"And who would that be?" Skuld asked, finally joining the conversation. For some reason, there was something wrong about this person.

"A person who passed away," the guy said, sobering. He turned to her and looked at Skuld in surprise. He held his hand out. "Hi, my name is Gabriel, but most people call me Gab."

1. ECM - Electronic Counter-Measures

2. IFF (Identify Friendly Forces) Jammer – confuses an IFF transponder and makes the user of the IFF jammer appear as either neutral (civilian) or friendly. (Mechwarrior 4, Mercenaries)

3. Paint used of steal aircraft that absorbs radio frequency EMR (electromagnetic radiation).

4. VTOL – Vertical take off and landing. Aircraft like the Harrier have the ability to move directly up (like a helicopter) and then gain forward momentum (I think, but I know for fact they can go straight up or down).

I looked for "Hello Girl's" name and I saw that Skuld called her 'Sigel' in Volume 19, Chapter 118, page 177. I wrote this chapter earlier, but then I happened to stumble on this little fact, so don't go and think I'm obsessed or an otaku or whatever. It was cool when I finally discovered it since it seems that a lot of people don't even know she has a name! (When I typed this)


	5. Trust

**Battle Field: Earth**

**Chapter Five:** Trust

**By:** Sci-Fi Raptor

**Disclaimer: **See chapter one.

**Nekomi, Japan**

**Late September 2002**

**A Local Park:**

"Gab, huh?" Skuld said slowly. She cautiously took his hand and shook it. "Well, my name is Skuld. Nice meeting you."

"Skuld… that's a nice name," he replied, smiling and caused her to blush.

"Thanks…" she said shyly. _Why is my heart suddenly beating so fast?_ Skuld thought.

Coincidentally, Sigel was having similar thoughts. _Heart rate increasing. Skin temperature slightly higher then normal. Sweating and increased hormonal activities? Could this be? Could this be that my master is… ILL!?_

"Master, it's getting late, we should go home now!" Sigel suddenly said, all but shoving Skuld onto Benpei's seat.

"B-but," Skuld said, unable to think correctly.

"It seems so," Gab said after checking his watch. "I should be going home too. I have a lot of work to do." Benpei's engine turned on and Sigel mounted him. "It's been nice meeting you, Skuld," Gab said, smiling a bit more. "I hope we see each other again," he waved as Benpei started moving.

As if suddenly forced out of a trance, Skuld finally managed to say something. "It's been nice seeing you too. I hope we meet again soon," she waved back. In a few seconds Benpei turned onto a road and he was out of sight.

"Master," Sigel said as they tree made their way home. "That guy started causing your body to function abnormally. I wonder what he did to you?" A big smile started forming on Skuld's face as she started to blush uncontrollably.

"Master?" Sigel said, confused with this strange behavior.

"He's so cute!!!" she said giddily. (Sigel/Benpei: --')

**(Back at the park)**

Gabriel stopped waving his right hand when the girl and her robots turned the corner and unclenched his left hand. He slowly raised it and stared at his ring finger, which coincidentally had a ring on it. A glowing ring, whose light faded as Skuld's presence stopped feeding it.

_Heh,_ Gab thought as his face went back to its normal stoic position. _Who would have thought that I would have found a Goddess like her so soon?_

He clenched his hand again once the light was gone. _Yes, I will have you…_

**Nekomi, Japan**

**Late September 2002**

**Morisato Residence:**

"We're back!" Skuld announced giddily as she entered the temple.

"Welcome back," Keiichi greeted, smiling back. _Wow, she hasn't acted this happy since Sentaro was around._

"Well, someone's in a good mood," Urd said insinuatingly as Skuld entered the TV room (Urd's second room). "Did something happen while we were at the park?" she said, coming almost up to Skuld's face.

"No…" she said, blushing even redder then before.

"Hah! I knew something happened! Tell big sister everything," Urd said in her interrogatory manner.

"Nothing happened!" she said.

"Now, now Skuld. You know lying can get you into serious trouble," Belldandy said out of nowhere.

"Come on Skuld, we won't bite," Urd said with a glint in her eye.

"Well…" Skuld started, staring at her index fingers, which she was pointing into each other.

"Well what?" Urd said impatiently.

"I met someone…" Skuld said quietly.

"That's wonderful!" Belldandy said happily.

"So that means… Skuld has a new boyfriend!" Urd said playfully.

Automatically, Skuld replied "Do NOT!"

Urd sighed, "Now I'm the only one without a boyfriend…" Her face suddenly showed she was thinking of something naughty. "Hey Keiichi…"

"Y-yes, Urd?" Keiichi answered nervously. He knew that she was going to ask him something that would end up with him hurting.

She crawled up to him and whispered into his ear, "Maybe we can get it on, you know, like when Bell isn't around."

"W-w-what!?" Keiichi said, blushing. Skuld also blushed a lot and Belldandy hit Urd in the back of the head.

"Keiichi, why are you blushing so much?" Urd said insidiously.

"Stop thinking those dirty thoughts!" Skuld added mechanically.

**(Later that night)**

"So," Urd said after the show that she and her youngest sister agreed on watching finished. "When are you going to see this 'Gab'?"

"Huh? Oh… Uh-oh," Skuld said, answer enough for Urd. She came up to her face and looked at her with disappointed eyes.

"I bet you don't even know his phone number?"

"Kyaa!" Skuld groaned. "I'm such a baka! Baka, baka, baka!" she scolded herself, constant hitting herself in the head. She stopped this tantrum when she realized she was registering more pain then she should have and found her sister pounding her head with her. Skuld glared daggers at her sister who had her face frozen in an expression that screamed 'it looked like fun.'

"What am I gonna do, Urd?" Skuld said, a bit intense.

_Wow, she's really worked up over this guy… normally she would have gotten me with one of her contraptions. This guy must be something…_ Urd said, her head filling with a bunch of R rated thoughts. After a short while, she said putting a hand on Skuld's shoulder for comfort, "Don't worry, Big Sister will help you." With eyes that had a devilish gleam in them, she said, "I'm not the Goddess of Love for nothing." With that, she went to her lab with an enthusiastic step.

_What did I just get myself into?_ Skuld thought to herself as her sister was out of her sight. "Baka, baka, baka!" she said, continuing her previous tantrum.

**Nekomi, Japan**

**Late September 2002**

**A Local Park:**

Being that she had nothing else to really do the whole day, Skuld went back to the park in which she had met Gabriel the day before. Sigel insisted that she go with her, and Benpei was her only (closest) means of convention transport. When they got to the park, however, Skuld insisted that she stay alone, forcing Sigel to stay with Benpei. Not that she minded that… too much.

Around four in afternoon, Skuld decided that she had waited long enough. _What was I thinking, waiting for him here again? He was probably just passing by the other day. Kyaa! Why didn't I ask him for his number earlier!_

Skuld made her way to the parking lot, but found that Benpei and Segil were no longer there. "Where did those two go?" Skuld wondered. "Oh yeah, I have my tracking device!" she remembered and pulled it out. _Let's see. According to this, they are… back home! Why did they leave without me?_

"There you are!" someone said from behind her.

"Who's that?" Skuld said to herself and turned back to see a pair of scarlet eyes staring back. "Gabriel…" she said, her heart suddenly racing. She put her hand upon her bosom in fear that it just might jump out.

"You have some loyal robots. They found me in the streets and practically dragged me all the way here!" he said, laughing.

"Gomen…" she said embarrassed. _Not that I'm unhappy,_ she thought, a smile forming on her face again.

"I'm so sorry about yesterday," he said, bowing apologetically. "Your robots had a point, I really should have asked you for your phone number. I'm such a baka sometimes!"

"That's okay," she said shyly, unsure of what to do now.

"Hey, you want to go out for some ice cream? I know this nice shop nearby."

"Sure!" she said, at the mention of her most favorite confection.

The day was a blur. After the ice cream shop, Gab took Skuld to a movie (which he coincidentally had tickets for), an aquarium and finally back to the park where they rented a boat until sunset. Skuld had never felt such bliss, not even while she was with Sentaro. _Rrr. Stupid Sentaro and his stupid girlfriend… _At sunset, the two slowly walked back to the parking lot where they first met.

"It was nice being with you today," Gab said. "We should go out more often."

"Yes, I think we should," Skuld said, blushing again. _I'm so hopeless…_

"Um, how are you going home, since your robots are gone?" he asked with intense curiosity.

"I can just te-" Skuld started but caught herself. _I can't tell him that I'm a Goddess! He'll think I'm crazy and never see me again!_ "Gomen… can you please take me home?" she said, trying to cover herself. She mentally scolded herself a moment later, _Baka, you could have told him that you had someone that would pick you up and just teleported. Too late now…_

"Of course, no problem. Just follow me," he said and led her to what she recognized as a green Kawasaki Ninja.

"This is yours!" she exclaimed.

"Yup," he said, mounting it. "Just sit behind me and hold on," he said. Skuld did as she was told. "Oh yeah, almost forgot," he said and gave her a helmet. "What about you?" she said, when she noticed that he didn't have a helmet for himself.

"A man can't wear a helmet knowing that there's a lady behind him without one," he shrugged and revved the engine. _But I'm not just a lady… I'm a Goddess,_ Skuld thought to herself.

He was extremely fast. Before she knew it, they were a few minutes away from the temple and had stopped at a red light.

"Skuld, do you think you can trust me?" Gab said out of the blue.

"I guess…" she said, sure he couldn't possibly hurt her.

"_Excellent,_" he said and suddenly started burning out. When the red light turned green, he let go of the brakes, and sent the bike almost hurtling forward. But he didn't continue forward in the direction of the temple. Instead, he took a left and drove at a scary speed. Lights and buildings whizzed by until he suddenly stopped somewhere. Dazed from all of the lights and sudden stop, Skuld couldn't stop him from taking her off of the bike and into what looked like an alley. A door closed behind her and suddenly the world went white.


	6. Shadows

**Battle Field: Earth**

**Chapter Six:** Shadows

**By:** Sci-Fi Raptor

**Disclaimer: **See chapter one.

**Volvograd, Russia**

**June 2000**

**Somewhere Near ****Mamayev Hill:**

It was night, and raining heavily. It was very quiet too. The area hadn't seen any military action since World War II.

_Three, two, one,_ Gab thought, and quickly stood up to release a short burst from his automatic rifle (AR). He ducked just as the enemies returned fire. Giving up his position had made the enemy go into a frenzy, all of them shooting at him at once. It would seem that he was at a disadvantage to some, but this was what he was waiting for. By firing at him like idiots, they all gave their positions away. He enervated a few grenades and let death rain over his enemies. He fired his gun, hoping that if there were any survivors, they would still shoot at him. Fortunately, there was no response. Even if it did seem that the enemy was down, he still cautiously crawled his way to the nearby building and took a defensive position. Within moments, a light skinned woman with long green hair and cold blue eyes followed him. They warmed up when she realized that they were done killing.

"All enemies are down, sir," she said.

"Good. Lets just get this thing and go," Gab said, who had finished reloading a Soviet he had managed to pick up on his way. He slung it over his shoulder and cocked his AR. The woman discharged her Uzi's spent clips and replaced them. They quickly made their way to the fourteenth floor and shot a few more people from behind. They reached a safe that Gab quickly cracked and the two scanned its innards. The woman found what they were looking for first. She stuck it in her shirt and motioned to Gab that she had it. They left the room quickly, going up the stairs to make their extract.

As he was about to make his first step, Gab said, "If this were an American building, this would actually be the thirteenth floor."

"Why's that?" the woman asked in a surprisingly pleasant voice.

"The reason is that they have this superstition that the number thirteen is unlucky, so they try their best to avoid using it."

"That's silly," she said as they passed their first flight of stairs. Unfortunately, the 'fourteenth' floor exploded, causing the two to be hurled up a few feet.

"I should have expected that," Gab said unnaturally cheerfully. "I forgot that Americans built this place."

"And you choose now of all times to tell me!" the woman complained, hurriedly scampering up so that she could keep up with Gab. Without any other incidents, they reached the roof and walked up to the helicopter. Gab insisted the woman go up first and followed her in. But the worst thing happened; one of the guards had managed to follow them and shot Gab just as he set foot on the helicopter as it started to rise.

The woman swiftly ended the guard's life with a controlled burst of her Uzi and scrambled to keep Gab from falling off. She laid him on the floor as the power door automatically closed and ripped his shirt apart. There were two holes in him. One was through his shoulder and another just under the middle of his ribcage. She wasn't sure, but there was a large possibility that his stomache and liver may have been punctured.

**Nekomi, Japan**

**Late September 2002**

**Outside the Morisato Residence:**

"Skuld is really late today," Belldandy said worriedly. "I hope nothing happened to her."

"Don't worry so much Bell," Keiichi said. "Skuld can take care of herself. Remember, she's not alone remember; she has Noble Scarlet to help her if she needs it."

"I guess you're right," Belldandy said and continued helping Keiichi on the last touches on the motorcycle he would use on the university sponsored Racing Cup 2002. Keiichi was given the honor after ranking 2nd in the 'Off Road 2002' championship. The 1rst place winner would also be racing against him tomorrow, though Keiichi hadn't really seen the guy.

A little bit later, the sound of a motorcycle could be heard approaching. The driver stopped in front of the Temple's entrance and someone got off of the bike. From what he had seen and heard, it sounded like a bike from the Kawasaki Ninja line. _Just like that guy who managed to dodge that truck_, Keiichi reflected, remembering that night from a few months ago.

The lighting was bad, but Keiichi and Belldandy could tell that it was Skuld who had gotten off. She talked to the driver for a little bit, giggled and kissed him on the cheek. He said something and put on the helmet that she had taken off. He revved up his engine and started burning out. He probably said goodbye, since Skuld started to wave at him. He did a 180, keeping his front tire on the same place and let go of his front brakes, sending him lunging forward. Skuld stayed there for a little bit longer and finally made her way to the Temple.

"Was that Gab?" Belldandy asked when Skuld was close enough to hear.

"Yeah…" she said, her face still red.

"He seems like a nice person," Keiichi said.

"I think I love him…" Skuld said as she went into the house.

"Love?" Keiichi and Belldandy said together. _It's only been two days…_ they thought.

Back in the Temple, Urd intercepted Skuld before she could go to bed. She gave her an annoyed look and said, "And where were _you_ all day? I finished making my tracker spell and you were nowhere to be found. You didn't even come with Benpei and Sigel!"

"Gomen…" she said.

"You better be sorry," she said, irritated. "I put so much energy into that dumb spell and you didn't even use it. If you weren't wandering around, you could have visited him today. Or at least found him and gotten his number!" Urd saw her sister was still going to her room as if what she had just said didn't matter. "Hey… where are you going? I'm not done with you yet."

"I'm kind of tired after today," she said.

"Why's that?" Urd said, taken by surprise. Her sister was usually full of energy from all of the ice cream she ate. She threw something to her as she made her way to the main hall.

"I was with him today," she said. As if in after thought, she giggled as she entered her room.

Urd looked at the thing that Skuld had thrown to her. It was a few pages full of photo stickers. The first column was a picture where Skuld looked like she was dazed, the flash of the camera reflecting off of her eyes. The rest of the columns were filled with more composed poses, as if Skuld had suddenly found out she was in a photo booth. Urd also noticed that a sticker was missing from each column. _I'll ask her later about it_, Urd thought, smiling. _Guess she finally found someone,_ Urd thought a little later. _And the best thing is it seems that its actually true love. _Her face soured a bit when she realized something else. _Too bad I couldn't test that new love potion formula on her…_

**(Outside, as Skuld kissed Gab on the cheek)**

_How DARE she kiss another man! She is MINE and MINE alone. I NEVER gave her permission to do anything like that. But if she had the gall to do something like that, I know she isn't loyal to me anymore. And if she isn't loyal, I can't have her. And if I can't have her, no one can!_


	7. Ninja Rider

**Battle Field: Earth**

**Chapter Seven:** Ninja Rider

**By:** Sci-Fi Raptor

**Disclaimer: **See chapter one.

**Nekomi, Japan**

**Late September 2002**

**Nearby NIT:**

It was finally the day that Keiichi and Belldandy had been preparing for and they couldn't be any more psyched. They pushed their motorcycle to the starting line and waited for the race to begin.

"Good luck," Belldandy said, kissing Keiichi on the helmet.

"Thanks," Keiichi said, and revved his bike when she made her way to the stands. He had scanned the other racers and noticed that everyone was there except the winner of "Off Road 2002." The race would begin in twenty minutes and Keiichi was worried he wouldn't show up in time. Urd came up to him when he shut his engine off.

"Urd! What are you doing here?" Keiichi said, surprised by her sudden appearance.

"You sound like that's a bad thing," she said suspiciously.

"Nonsense," he lied.

"You're a bad liar, Keiichi 3," Urd said and opened up his engine.

"What are you doing!" he all but screamed.

"Chill. I'm just gonna help you out a little."

"That's what I'm afraid of…" he said, sighing.

"Hey, Trolls! You there?" Urd said, talking into the engine.

"Oh God, not that again…" Keiichi said, remembering the last time they had consulted with his engine's Trolls; and how they had to catch them all.

"Wowza!" they said in unison. "What can we do you for?" the Trolls said, snickering at their own pun.

"I'll make it your while if you guys work your hardest and help this kid win," she said, blinking.

"REALLY?" they said. When she nodded, they went into a frenzy and almost started the engine on their own.

"Hold it there you guys. You have to wait until the race _starts_."

"We don't wanna wait…" they moaned as she closed the engine.

"Thanks…" Keiichi said unsurely as she made her way back to the stands. He made a short prayer, hoping he wouldn't die from Urd's extra prodding. To his surprise, and relief, the last racer had arrived and took his place. Keiichi recognized the motorcycle as the same model motorcycle of the person who dodged the truck, a green Kawasaki Ninja ZX010R. The driver was wearing a green-black schemed uniform and a green helmet with an opaque black visor.

The race started five minutes later with all participants burning out and many people rooting for the now semi-famous Keiichi. Those with and without skill were quickly separated at the first turn where the less skillful skidded and wiped out and the more skillful pulled up more.

Keiichi had tilted his bike as low as he dared, but the guy with the green bike had somehow still gotten ahead of him. By the third turn, the competition was only between Keiichi and the Ninja rider. But Keiichi wasn't discouraged that he was behind, since when they finished their first lap, the stands were screaming out support for him while Belldandy projected her love for him. He gratefully accepted it and started pulling up to the Ninja rider. Unfortunately, that was as close he ever got the rest of the next three laps. Progressively, Keiichi got so behind that at the fourth lap he was behind by half a lap.

He was starting to lose faith in himself, but he suddenly saw the image of the Ninja rider's bike sprawled upon the ground. Thinking back at what he just saw, he realized that he must have run over some debris from the totaled bikes before him and lost control. Even though it was an unfortunate accident, Keiichi knew that he would win unless a miracle occurred. When he passed by the wreck site again, he expected to see the Ninja rider, wheeling his bike back to the garage, but instead found it empty, save for the debris of the earlier totalities and the Ninja rider's skid marks.

_So you're giving it your all then, aren't you?_ Keiichi thought, realizing that he was back in the race._ Then I'll give it my all too, _he thought and worked his bike even harder. Somehow, though the race ended with a draw for first between Keiichi and the Ninja rider. The judges decided that a draw was unacceptable and told the two they would face each other on a one-on-one time attack for three laps. They were given half an hour to rest and repair their bikes. Keiichi and his buddies from NIT quickly made some repairs and adjustments, while the Ninja rider did it by his lonesome. Fifteen minutes remained and the two took a break.

Discreetly, Skuld went up to the Kawasaki Ninja and opened up its engine. To her surprise, she didn't find a bunch of trolls. She found a bunch of female trolls.

"Wow, haven't seen much of your kind in places like this…" Urd said.

"You shouldn't be seeing us in the first place!" they retorted angrily.

"I have a simple question. Answer it and I'll leave you and the bike alone"

"What is it?" they said in unison.

"Why are you girls working so hard for this guy?"

"Because he's sexy!" they said in unison again (well, they said Kawaii, but you could tell that's what they really meant).

"And he takes good care of us," one of the less talkative trolls said.

"That's also true," the other trolls said as one.

"I see…" she said and closed the engine. She went up to Keiichi and gave him the news. "He's not cheating. His engine's trolls just love him."

"I thought as much," he said casually. "After seeing what that guy can do, I'm not surprised he didn't need to cheat to pull of catching up so quickie."

"Whatever," she said, going back to the stands. "But if you still want this Maxwell's demon, you know where I am."

"Thanks, but no thanks," Keiichi said as she left. _Its just gonna be you and me_ he thought as the Ninja rider made his way back to his bike. _This is getting me excited._

"The race was fifteen seconds from starting and the two were revving their engines. Keiichi turned his head to signal _Good luck_ to his adversary, but found him looking at the stands. At the sound of the three-second bell, Keiichi glued his eyes to the road and started burning out. Peculiarly, his adversary did not burn out, but continued revving. At the go signal, Keiichi let go of his brakes and was sent hurtling forwards. He checked his peripheral vision, and to no surprise found that his opponent was not there. _Of course if you don't burn out in the beginning you wont start out as fast!_ Keiichi mentally rebuked him.

As if to counter his statement, the Ninja rider suddenly went past him. _How? What? How did he get ahead of me?_ Keiichi thought. A split second later, he realized why. The Ninja Rider had popped a wheelie and was now loosing him. _So that's why you didn't burn out before… _Keiichi thought. _But I bet it was to show off to whoever you were looking for, right?_ Not one to be beaten easily, Keiichi put his skills up a few notches and did his best to keep up with his opponent. By the third lap, they were neck in neck and the only thing separating the two and victory was a straightaway. _Our bikes are too similar for the engines to matter anymore. _Keiichi thought, analyzing the situation. _The deciding factor in who will win this is who can't be more aerodynamic._ Both riders hugged their bikes as tightly as they could. _I guess it'll be another draw_, Keiichi thought as the finish line got closer and closer. But he was wrong.

The Ninja rider crossed it first.

_How did he do it this time? _Keiichi thought in confusion. _What could he have done to beat me?_ Then he saw what he did. Not only did he have his body flat on his bike, the Ninja rider also held his legs out horizontally, causing his air resistance to be slightly less then Keiichi's.

"Wow, you were amazing," Keiichi said walking up to his worthy opponent. He held his hand out and the Ninja rider shook it. "You've shown me that there are still some things I have left to learn." The winner didn't reply; he just went to get his trophy. In a few moments, the first, second and third place winners were standing on platforms near each other and their picture was taken. The Ninja rider received his rewards, but never took his helmet off. All that time, even while his picture was being taken, Keiichi could sense that he was still looking for someone.

"Keiichi! You were terrific," Belldandy said, coming up to him and hugging him.

"Too bad you lost to that guy," Urd commented.

"Hey, where's Skuld?" Keiichi asked after he noticed that she was missing.

"She was right here…" Belldandy said.

"S-s-she's over thurr!" Urd said, pointing somewhere. "And she's kissing some guy!" As if the whole world had just heard her, everyone in the surrounding area looked where Urd was pointing and saw that Skuld was kissing someone on the cheek: the Ninja rider! (Who was sitting on his Ninja!) When she let go, everyone whooped and made other noises that made Skuld embarrassed. The Ninja rider, however, had shut his visor when the embrace was over and burned rubber out of the area, denying Keiichi and the rest a glimpse of his face.

"Who was that?" Urd said, shocked her kid sister could do something like that in public.

"Gab…" she said, blushing. In her arms was the trophy that he had won.

"THAT WAS GAB?!" Keiichi and Urd said in unison.

"Tee hee," Skuld giggled, smiling from ear to ear.

I was trying to emulate the mangas where after a person says something, they add a heart to show love or something. That line just seemed like it was suited for something like that.


	8. To Be With You

**Battle Field: Earth**

**Chapter Eight:** To Be With You

**By:** Sci-Fi Raptor

**Disclaimer: **See chapter one.

**Nekomi, Japan**

**Early October 2002**

**A Local Park (past sunset):**

It had been nearly two weeks without incident since they had met. And Skuld wished they stayed together forever. She had finally grown to see what Belldandy saw in these humans. The sun had set some time ago and the couple lay side by side on the grass near a lake, staring at the starry universe.

Skuld wanted an incident to happen soon.

"Gab?" said Skuld, realizing she didn't know much about him.

"Yes, Skuld," he answered, turning his head to stare at her.

"You have a job, right?" she said, turning her head to look back at him. When he nodded, she continued, "What do you do?"

"I'm a mercenary," he said, his face sobering up. "I kill people for money."

Skuld was quiet for a few seconds. After a while she giggled, "Stop joking. What do you really do?"

"Aw, you didn't believe me," he said with a disappointed face. "How about this: I work at NIT?"

"Really? What do you do there?"

"I help around the campus and stuff like that," he said, looking back at the sky.

"Oh," she said. _Why would he do menial work like that? He's way too smart for something like that. I mean, if he could improve Benpei and Sigel so much, he must be a genius!_

"Gab, what are your plans for the future?"

"Let me think…" he said. After a few moments he made up his mind and said, "I want to find someone, find happiness with her and die."

"Who are you looking for?" she said, getting on all fours and hovering her face above his. Her long hair lagged behind her head and rested, sprawled over his chest.

"I'm done looking," he said, staring into her eyes. Her heart fluttered and her body moved on it's own. Her face moved down and she kissed him. His response was soft, but had substance. When they separated (something she really regretted), Skuld was blushing even more then before.

"Sorry. I don't know what came over me…" she said, but was shushed. He wrapped his arms around her back and made her lay on top of him, her legs straddled against his. Her body was on top of his, the side of her head resting on his chest. Instantly, she calmed down and simply listened to the beating of his heart as he stroked her hair. Eventually, he stopped. Skuld looked up and saw that he had fallen asleep. She smiled, seeing the calm, content look on his face.

She held onto him a little tighter and slowly faded into sleep. Her emotions leaked into Noble Scarlet and caused her to take her wings out. Instead of putting them back in immediately like she normally would, Noble Scarlet covered both Skuld and Gabriel with her warm feathery wings, caressing Skuld's love as an extension of Skuld herself. In that little corner of the universe, all seemed well.

Sometime later, late in the night, an evil spirit made its way though the park and came upon a young couple sleeping before the lake. _Finally, some food!_ It thought, lunging at them. But before it could even move a meter, a shaft a light originating from the couple incinerated it.


	9. GabrielSensei

**Battle Field: Earth**

**Chapter Nine:** Gabriel-Sensei

**By:** Sci-Fi Raptor

**Disclaimer: **See chapter one.

I'm telling you in advance that the only reason I'm using the nametags in this chapter is because it didn't sound correct to me to just say the person's name in the cases where I used the Japanese tags.

**Nekomi, Japan**

**Early October 2002**

**A Local Park:**

The bright sunlight had finally glared enough through her eyelids enough to force Skuld to wake up. Birds were twittering nearby while a bunch of people walked past, some giving strange looks at her. She looked around, and found that she was at a park.

_What am I doing here?_ Skuld wondered, rubbing her eyes. She felt something warm under her and looked to find Gab sleeping peacefully under her. _Oh yeah…_ she thought, remembering the previous night. She looked at her timepiece and saw that it was a little past nine in the morning.

"Gab," she said, trying to wake the man under her up.

"Mmm…" he moaned, grabbing her hand and stroking it on his face. Skuld giggled, but drew her hand back quickly when he was about to bite her fingers.

"Watermelon?" Gab grumbled, sitting up. He blushed when he registered that there was a girl sitting on his lap.

"Not watermelon, you baka," Skuld, tapping his forehead lightly. "Those were my fingers!"

"Heh, gomen…" Gab apologized. He stretched his arms and yawned. "Do you know what time it is?"

Skuld answered, "It's a little past nine."

"Nine, huh?" he said, letting it sink in. "Crap!" he suddenly said, smacking himself in the face.

"What happened?" Skuld said, alarmed.

"I'm gonna be late for my job!" he all but screamed.

"Oh, that's gonna suck…" Skuld said unemotionally. "You'll probably get fired and have to look for another job then." _And then you can actually get a decent one, too!_ She thought, getting off of him.

"You're mean," he whined and ran as fast as he could to the parking lot. "I'll see you this afternoon, same time, k?"

"Yeah," she said, giggling at how cute he could be.

**Nekomi, Japan**

**Early October 2002**

**NIT, Professor Kakuta's Lab:**

"The assistant is late again," Keiichi whispered to Belldandy. Even though Keiichi only had to take a language to fulfill his graduation requirements, he still went to some of the classes Belldandy had.

"How unfortunate," Belldandy said. "Wasn't today his last day? I would feel so bad if I ended something on this kind of note."

"Yeah," Keiichi agreed. He didn't go on any further since the assistant all but stumbled in that moment.

The assistant was an odd one. He came in with his green jacket, military style camouflaged pants and red shades, just like every other day. They didn't look right for his light skin and hair. No one could really see the color of his eyes since the shades were the one-way type. But most peculiar was that he seemed to be about 17-18 years old. How he managed to get where he was, was beyond Keiichi, but he had nothing but respect for him.

"And why are we late, once again Mr. Gabriel?" professor Kakuta asked impatiently.

"Well… um…" he stuttered.

"This _is_ your last day. Maybe you should explain to the class why our time is being cut short?"

"Um… well… you see…" he started, but blushed. He walked up to the professor and whispered something to him, blushing even more as he continued. When he was done, the professor stepped back in contemplation. Then he cracked up and needed a few minutes to calm down.

"I (snicker) see… I guess I'll let it slide (snicker) for today," he said, getting the rest of it out. The he turned to address the class. "Okay class, turn to page 476 and we can continue the section of vortexes that was so rudely interrupted by my assistant."

"Sorry," he bowed and went to the board and started writing the notes for the section the class was in the middle of.

"As I was saying, vortexes are the results of high turbulence…"

**(At the end of the class)**

The bell had rung and everyone packed up to go home. The assistant, Gabriel, was fumbling around with his stuff. Belldandy looked back and noticed that he was kind of lonely.

"Keiichi…" she said. He got the point.

"I'll ask him to come with us," he said, admiring her goodhearted nature. He walked up to him.

"Um… Gabriel, right? You want to have lunch with us, since it's your last day teaching this class and all?"

"Um… sure," he said and picked up one more article. The three made their way to the parking lot.

"I'm sorry," Keiichi said, as they reached his bike. "But my motorcycle only has enough room for me and Bell."

"It's alright, I have my own ride. I'll just follow you two."

"Great!" Belldandy said in sudden enthusiasm. The two guys gave her a strange look. "Heh, heh…"

As they put on their safety gear, Belldandy realized something. "Keiichi, did you notice that the first three letters of Gabriel-sama are the same as the nickname Skuld uses for her boyfriend?"

"Hey, I never noticed that till now. Isn't that a strange coincidence?"

Keiichi and Belldandy were waiting at the parking lot's exit for Gabriel to arrive. Keiichi expected him to have something cheap like an 86, since he knew that assistant teachers had it tough when it came to money. But what he had really took him by surprise.

He was on a green Kawasaki Ninja ZX010R and had a green helmet with a black visor. _Another strange coincidence?_ Keiichi thought, remembering the race that was held nearby the university not too long ago and the Ninja rider that gave Skuld the winner's trophy (which was displayed prominently in the TV room, much to Urd's dismay).

Keiichi signaled into the road and made his way to the temple. Gabriel stayed close to him the whole way and they safely made their way to the temple without Gabriel getting lost.

"Tadaima," Keiichi and Belldandy said as they entered the temple. Gabriel quietly followed them in. _Why did those streets feel familiar,_ he thought.

"Yo," Urd said as they walked past the TV room and headed to the eating room (dining room maybe? I don't really know what it's called).

"Who're you?" Urd asked when she noticed the stranger with red shades come in.

"I'm Gabriel, how do you do?" he replied pleasantly.

"Gabriel huh?" she answered, going into thought. "Sounds familiar… Nice to meet you, Gabriel."

"You too," he said and followed Keiichi into the dining room.

"If you wait a little bit, lunch will be ready," Belldandy said, went to the kitchen.

The two guys just sat there, the silence deafening. Keiichi finally thought of something to say.

"Gabriel-sama, why were you late to class today?" he asked. Gabriel blushed and thought a little before he replied.

"The least embarrassing way to explain it is to say that I was up late talking to a girl and my alarm wasn't available to wake me up…" he said, his voice quieting. Keiichi had a few ideas of what he meant.

"So you scored?" he said mischievously.

"No!" Gabriel said, even more embarrassed. "We just talked. Nothing happened."

Keiichi moved next to him and put a comforting hand on his shoulder, saying, "I feel for you, man."

"Lunch is ready!" Belldandy said enthusiastically, and entered the room with three plates. Each had a sandwich, a pastry and fortune cookie. She went back to the kitchen and brought a drink for everyone.

"Lets dig in," Keiichi said and started eating. Everyone else followed. While they ate, they made some small talk, Keiichi trying to probe Gabriel about who this girl was. He noticed that Gabriel kept checking his watch once in a while and Keiichi asked him about it.

"I have to meet someone later at the park," he replied.

"Who, your lady friend?" Keiichi said sinisterly.

"No! I mean yes, but not like how you're thinking!"

"And how am I thinking?" he said with and even sharper edge sinisterness in his voice. Being that Belldandy was around he didn't answer, just turned red as a beet.

"Well then, I have to go off and do some shopping," Belldandy said, getting up, after all the food was finished and dishes done.

"Thank you for the meal, it was exquisite," Gabriel added, also getting up.

"I'll go with you," Keiichi volunteered enthusiastically, the last one to get up.

"But what about Gabriel-sama?" Belldandy asked.

"I'll just go home," he replied. "I'm kinda tired."

"If you like, you can rest here, since the park isn't so far away. Urd will wake you if you want."

Gabriel thought about it for a moment and replied, "I'll take your offer. My home is a little bit farther away then the Temple is." (Map: a yellow point where the park is, a red point where the temple is. A line is draw starting from the park and headed toward the temple. The line goes a little bit farther past the temple and a blue dot appears with a note saying Gabriel's house.)

"When should I tell Urd to wake you up?" Belldandy asked.

"Around four would be okay," he said. Keiichi led him to a room where he could sleep and Belldandy asked her sister for the request. She grunted, meaning that she would.

As soon as the two left, Urd went into the room he was in and found him fast asleep. _The better to use you, my pretty!_ She thought wickedly. It had been some time since she messed around with a human. _What shall it be today? A dream? A nightmare?_ When she decided what she wanted to do, she activated the spell. But something went wrong.

Horribly wrong.

Something shocked her and she collapsed next to him. Some of her memory was erased, and the last thing she remembered doing was grunting to Belldandy.


	10. Gabrielsama

**Battle Field: Earth**

**Chapter Ten:** Gabriel-sama

**By:** Sci-Fi Raptor

**Disclaimer: **See chapter one.

**Nekomi, Japan**

**Early October 2002**

**Morisato Residence (around 6:30 PM):**

Keiichi was glad that they were finally done shopping. He forgot how enthusiastic Bell got when it came to shopping. Not that he minded being with her; he was just tired.

"Tadaima," the two said when they entered the temple, Keiichi a bit quieter than Bell. Surprisingly, no one answered back.

"I wonder where Urd could be?" Belldandy wondered out loud.

"Probably harassing some poor guy," Keiichi said.

"Probably…" she said, uncomfortable with the fact that it was probably true. "I'll go make dinner," she continued and went to the kitchen.

Keiichi went to the TV room. He was surprised Urd wasn't there, eyeballs glued to the TV. He flipped through the channels, waiting for Belldandy's surreal cooking.

WHAM!

"Tadaima…" Skuld said bitterly, entering the house with a heavy step.

"What happened?" Keiichi said, surprised with her mood. She gave him a look that could kill.

"Stupid guys! Don't ever remember anything!" Skuld said angrily, stomping off to her room. Sigel wasn't there to comfort her, on the account that she and Benpei had been getting 'friendly' on account of Skuld always being out of the house without them. Instead, Belldandy came up to her to try and comfort her.

"Keiichi, can you watch dinner while I try and talk to her?" she said as she followed Skuld.

"Yeah," he said and went into the kitchen.

"What happened?" Belldandy asked when they were in Skuld's room.

"He stood me up! I waited at the park all that time and he still stood me up! Even after we had that talk last night!" she said angrily. Belldandy and Keiichi didn't know that Skuld didn't show up the night before, so she paid that last tidbit little heed.

"That's why you're so worked up? Why didn't you give him a call? He might have been tied up and unable to come."

"I _did_ call, but her never picked up. I'm so mad at him, I don't think I'll ever forgive him!" she said, throwing a pillow at the wall. She started crying suddenly.

_There is definitely something bigger going on here. Why is Skuld getting so emotional over something this little?_ "There, there. It'll be all right. He probably has a logical reason for not meeting you there." She said, trying to calm the child down. After a while, the sobs stopped and Skuld just sat on her bed. "Now be a good sister and be happy. I bet you that he's gonna call you up any minute now and apologize for missing your date."

"Its not a date…" she replied automatically, sniffing.

"Bell!" Keiichi yelled; obviously he wasn't in control of the dinner any longer.

"I'm sorry Skuld, I have to look after the dinner. Now you be a strong little Goddess," she said, patting her on the head.

"Thanks," she said, her mood happy again because of her sister's nature. Belldandy went to the kitchen to help Keiichi out and Skuld started a project. _I'll make sure you don't forget, ever again._

**(Guest room)**

Urd felt like a truck hit her. The last thing she remembered was that she had to wake someone up. She sat up and looked around. She was in the guest room. There was a guy sprawled on the ground like he was drugged by one of her potions.

"Hold up!" she thought out loud and looked back at the person. _Oh crap…_ she thought suddenly. _Did I do something weird again?_ She decided that she would hide the evidence, but Belldandy suddenly came out of nowhere.

"Urd, there you are. Dinner's ready, so you should go wash up."

"Okay," she said, trying to keep her from noticing the possibly dead person lying on the ground.

"What's this? Gabriel-sama is still here? Didn't you wake him up at four like I asked you to?"

"I was supposed to wake him up?" Urd said. Then she remembered that she was supposed to wake someone up. "Oh, damn, I was supposed to wake him up…" she said.

"Urd, why didn't you wake him up?" Belldandy said, a bit angry that the assistant was probably inconvenienced by her laziness.

"I don't know. All I remember is that I was watching 'Deep Blue' and then I wake up next to this guy."

"Urd, please tell me you didn't do anything to the poor boy," Belldandy said, worry in her voice.

"I don't remember doing anything to him, but its weird that I don't remember some things."

"Bell," Keiichi said, popping his head into the room. "What's going on? You've been here for some time. Dinner is getting cold."

"It seems that Urd didn't wake up Gabriel-sama and he's still here," Belldandy said, sighing.

"Huh… where am I?" Gabriel said, choosing that moment to wake up. He looked outside and saw that it wasn't as bright as it should have been. _I must have woken up a bit late._ He thought and checked his watch. "Holy -," he all but screamed. "I'm really late! She's gonna freak!"

"What's going on in here," Skuld said, finally unable to stand all the commotion coming from the guest room.

"Um… Skuld, meet out former teacher's assistant Gabriel-sama," Keiichi said, thinking of nothing better to do then introducing the two. "Gabriel-sama, meet Belldandy and Urd's little sister Skuld."

"Gab?" Skuld said, taken by surprise that he was at her home.

"Gab?" Keiichi and Urd said in unison. "You mean… this is… him?" Keiichi said.

"Skuld? You live here?" Gab said in surprise. _No wonder those streets seemed familiar! I dropped off Skuld here the other night._

"Yeah. But how did you end up here?" she asked.

"I finished my last class with these two," he started answering, referring to Keiichi and Belldandy. "And they asked me if I wanted to have lunch to mark my last day with them."

"Oh," she said, relieved that he wasn't just some menial worker at the university. _I knew he was too smart for something like that._ Then she remembered how he forgot and noticed that he was in a futon. "You stood me up and you have the nerve to be sleeping at my house?" she suddenly said, angrily.

"Yes… I mean no," he said, tripping. "Argh. See this is what happened. After the lunch, I was offered to stay here and rest before I went to the park to meet you, but your oldest sister seems to have forgotten to wake me up."

"So its _your _fault!" Skuld said, ready to attack. "You try to screw up everything I have going for me!"

"Well, I don't think that's what really happened…" Gabriel said, but no one listened.

"I didn't try to screw you over! I just happened to have fallen asleep next to him. I don't even remember how I even got over here."

"What? Did you do something weird to him?!" Skuld said, in a maternal tone. She went up next to him and said, "Did she do anything bad to you? Are you alright?" she said like an over protective mother to her child.

_She seems way too attached and overprotective of this guy. _Urd thought. _They just met a couple of weeks ago and she's suddenly acting like they've been married for years!_ She looked at Belldandy and saw that she was thinking along those lines. She looked at Gab and saw something that bothered her a little. He looked smug, as if he had just won an argument. All the while Skuld yelled at Urd about 'harassing people too much.'"

_I know you're up to something…_ Urd thought. _And sooner or later I'll find out what._

**(Later that night)**

Being that everyone had finally met Gab, Belldandy quickly scraped together some things and made an informal party to celebrate. After the fun and festivities were over, Gabriel said that he had to get going. Naturally, Skuld tried to get him to stay longer and Urd brooded over how attached she was to him after so little time.

"Why do you have to leave so early, anyway?" Keiichi asked him just as he left, since it wasn't even eleven yet.

He replied, "I have to get up early, I start teaching my own class tomorrow."

"You're teaching your own class now?" Keiichi repeated, impressed by what this youngster had managed to pull of.

"Yeah. Professor Kukata and I are in the final stages of finishing an improvement to a type of jet technology and we needed a lab to be dedicated to it. The university wouldn't let us have it all to ourselves if we didn't have someone teaching there, so that's how I landed my job."

"Really?" Belldandy said, a smile on her face. "Isn't that great? I wish you well on your endeavors."

"Thank you," Gabriel replied.

"How long will you be working on it before you're done?" Keiichi asked, suddenly realizing that he never said he was a permanent employee.

"My contract is indefinite for now," he started and Skuld made a soft sigh of relief. Smiling, he continued, "I'll be working there until I retire or die."

For some reason, the way he ended that last sentence upset Skuld. _Why would he say die?_

"Wow, it's already twelve! I really gotta get going. It's been really nice meeting you all. Good night," he said and trotted to his bicycle. He tried to turn it on, but it stalled. "I'll get going any second now…" he said, causing everyone else to sweat drop. He messed around with it and ended up giving it a kick. And it started working. "I thought that only happened with the American's vehicles…" he said as he got on. "I guess Japan's standards are getting lower."

"That _does _happen only to American vehicles," Keiichi said, giving Skuld a look.

"What? It wasn't me," she giggled, her fingers crossed behind her back.

Gab honked twice and burned rubber down the road.


	11. ‘Ghosts’

**Battle Field: Earth**

**Chapter Eleven:** 'Ghosts'

**By:** Sci-Fi Raptor

**Disclaimer: **See chapter one.

**Yaggdrassil**

**When Urd was young. **P** So sometime a few centuries ago:**

"And as you can see from the ancient texts, there were five beings know as the Ghosts," the teacher said. "Can anyone one tell me what we know about them?" he asked, but didn't wait for an answer. "That's right, we know nothing- yes Urd?"

"Actually, I did research on these 'Ghosts' and found out something very peculiar about them."

"And would you mind telling the class about this discovery?" the teacher said, unwilling to put any energy into stopping her from making her joke. It just wasn't worth it anymore.

With the face of an angel, she recited as if reading from a book, "The beings known as 'Ghosts' are also known as the Five Wraiths of God. They are the five Arch Angels that govern this and all other realities and get their orders from a being that we know even less about. They possess great power, estimated to be able to neutralize whole dimensions, but only act exactly according to their master's whim. Even though they are so powerful, the have no free will."

The teacher just looked at her with his jaw hanging. How did a kid like her know so much? And was it even true? It sounded real enough, and there was that rumor that she was the spawn of Daima-Kaicho Hild herself. _She sure acts like it…_he thought bitterly.

**Nekomi, Japan**

**October 2002**

**Morisato Residence:**

"No, don't do that," Skuld moaned. "Not there!"

"Yes! I will do it!" Gab said, forcing himself on her.

"No Gab! What will we do if anyone sees this?"

"I don't care. I will do it!"

"NO!" Skuld moaned as he did it.

"Victory!" Gab said, suddenly standing up and sticking up his index and middle finger up (to make a V).

"Player 2 Wins!!!" the TV screen showed.

"How could I lose…" Skuld cried. "No one has ever beaten me in GTX Racing."

"First time for everything," he said, a glint in his eye.

"So annoying," Urd muttered from under her breath.

"Urd!" Skuld recoiled in shock. "How long have you been there?"

"Since you guys sounded like you were getting it on. But obviously you two are just playing more of those retarded video games."

"So you saw then…" Skuld said, her face full of shame.

"I think I'll get going…" Gab said nervously. He sneaked his way out of the house before Urd 'messed around' with him.

"You two have been hanging a lot over here ever since we all met."

"Gab finds it easier to just come here then go to the park," she shrugged. "Besides, I like creaming him," she said with a glint in her eye.

"Like right now?" Urd said sarcastically. Skuld 'acked' as if she were stabbed in the back. "Why don't you just go to his place? OPEN THE DAMN TV SO I CAN USE IT!!!"

"You know what, dear Urd? I think that's a good idea. I'll pay him a surprise visit tomorrow," She said, thinking of what she would do the next day. "I'll make him a lunch first and bring it to him at work, that'll be fun," she said, making her way to her room.

"Jeez, she sounds like Belldandy…" Urd muttered.

"Tadaima!" Keiichi Belldandy said as they entered the temple. Keiichi's younger sister, Megumi, followed them in.

"How are you today, Urd?" Belldandy asked as the three went through the TV room.

"Peachy…" she replied, channel surfing. Seeing that Urd wasn't really talkative, she went to the kitchen to make lunch for the other two.

The wind started to pick up.

_Man, since when did it get so windy?_ Urd thought as she went to close the door. But she stopped. Just outside was a mini vortex. She could feel her coming.

_Lind…_

Belldandy followed her outside and also waited for Lind to appear.

"Hello Lind," Belldandy greeted when she materialized.

"Hello Belldandy, Urd," she replied back. But the vortex didn't stop. She stepped aside and three guy and two girls followed.

"What's this about?" Urd questioned. "A party?"

"If this were a party, only the senior members of the fighting division wouldn't have come," she said business like.

"Then what is going on?" Belldandy asked. "Can we help?"

"It would be appreciated if you _could_ help us, but your angles would have to have had a special modification." As if on cue, each God/ess's angel appeared, each with a strange symbol on their forehead.

"We are searching for our division's… founder, if you will," a boy with red hair and blue haired angel said.

"He is currently working undercover in this plane of existence and it would be next to impossible to track him without a special program designed specifically to find him," a boy with purple hair and green haired angel said.

"Who is this person?" Urd asked, curious about a person who needed such energy to look for.

"That's classified," the last boy with green hair and a yellow haired angel said coldly. But that reminded Urd of something.

"Did he, by chance, come to this zone four months ago?" she asked.

"How did you know that? I thought that was classified!" one of the girls said.

"It was," Urd said, an evil smile on her face. "But you just told me my guess was right."

"There you go, mouthing off again!" the last girl said glaring daggers at her associate.

"I think we should get started…" Lind said, worried something might happen. These guys weren't really used to working together.

"Yes," the green haired God said. "Lets." They all flew up and went in separate ways.

"What was all that noise?" Megumi asked, stumbling in. Keiichi had had the sense to stall her for as long as possible.

"Um… some animal. We just chased it away…" Urd lied.

"Y-yeah… we chased the poor creature away…" Belldandy said. Heartbroken of even thinking of doing something like that.

"Really? What creature?" Megumi asked

"Err… a Panda," Urd said, pulling out the first thing that came to mind.

"Panda…" Keiichi said, disappointed that that was the best she could come up with.

"Really? How could it make so much noise?"

"A really, really big Panda…" Urd said, giving up.

"Tadaima!" someone said. Grateful for the distraction, Keiichi took his sister with him to the front entrance. Keiichi had a big headache to find that Peorth (in her skimpy clothing) and Welsper had come back from their vacation.

"So it wasn't just some glitch!" Urd said, venting her anger from months ago. "It was just some top brass." Then, with resolve, "This time, I'll find him for sure." She started walking to a nearby TV.

"What makes you think that you could possibly find it without that special modification?" Belldandy asked before she teleported.

"I have an ace up my sleeve. _I_ have a lead…" she said and went back to the place she had visited so long ago.

**Nekomi, Japan**

**October 2002:**

Skuld had researched the recipe for what she had come to know as Gab's favorite food- Ogiri. She insisted to Bell that she do it alone, since Bell never asked for help when making things for Keiichi. She rationalized that the more she put into it, the more love it would contain. She made her way to the square where Belldandy usually bought her ingredients.

She didn't know why, but it seemed like the sky was getting darker. _Maybe it's going to rain? But I don't remember any forecasts mentioning rain. _She went on, however, thinking it was harmless.

**(Nearby)**

She was finally alone. No robots, no Goddesses and not Gabriel surrounding her. She was by herself; and vulnerable.

Yes. This time he would exact his revenge.

When she went through an empty street, free of cars, pedestrians and witnesses, he made his move. He charged up his attack and waited for the perfect moment. The moment arrived when she realized the he was there. It was beautiful, seeing her eyes widen with fear. It was time.

He left go and the ball of anti-energy was fired. Nothing could stop it now, not even if Kami-sama himself wanted to. _Die bitch!_

**Nekomi, Japan**

**October 2002**

**Morisato Residence:**

Belldandy, Urd and Peorth felt it at the same time. They all met outside at the same time and all said, "Did you feel that?" at the same time with the same amount of surprise and fear in their voices. Without a moment's hesitation, they teleported to the energy sources location.

_That level of energy is enough to blow away half of the Earth!_ They all thought as they made their way there. Urd was the first to arrive, and what she saw made her recoil in shock.

I think that's how you spell it. It is the name for rice balls…


	12. To Protect

**Battle Field: Earth**

**Chapter Twelve:** To Protect

**By:** Sci-Fi Raptor

**Disclaimer: **See chapter one.

**Nekomi, Japan**

**October 2002:**

Skuld was starting to get worried about the darkness. She turned back to see what was going on, but found something even more disturbing. It was some demon charging an attack that was pointed directly at her. Before she could even scream, he unleashed his fury. Mercifully, her body chose that moment to blink. _At least it'll be over quickly…_ she thought. Strangely, her face wasn't full of fear; it was content.

SLAM!

_I wonder where I'm going to go now…_ Skuld thought, slowly opening her eyes. But what she saw surprised her. Everything was bright, as if she were back at Yaggdrassil. But she knew she wasn't; she was still standing in the same exact spot. Right before her eyes, there was a pair of great blue wings that were shielding her.

_Noble Scarlet? _Skuld automatically thought. _How could she protect me from something like that?_

Strangely, she felt warm. _That's strange. I thought it was a bit chilly a few moments ago._ She willed Noble Scarlet to show herself before her and another pair of wings showed. It positioned herself in front of her, a smile on her face; the protective pair of wings were still surrounding Skuld.

_Wait a second… _she thought. _If Noble Scarlet is in front of me, whose wings are surrounding me right now?_ She turned back to see her savior.

A pair of burning red eyes stared back.

_I know these eyes…_ Skuld realized. They weren't frightening at all. They were warm, and made her feel safe. She felt like turning around and hugging whatever was behind her. She also noticed that besides the eyes, everything about the creature was a glowing blue, as if he were made of cloud and had light shining inside of him.

It was crying, red tears falling down its face.

"I'm sorry…" she said for some reason. She didn't know why, but it sounded like those words would comfort it.

It mouthed something to her, but she couldn't hear. It stared at her for a little bit, then sobered up. It opened up its wings and exposed the outside world. It was still as dark and miserable as before. And it was still there. That horrible demon.

"Skuld!" Belldandy gasped.

"It's… it's a ghost!" Urd blurted out.

"A what?" Skuld asked, having no idea what she was talking about.

"T-there's a Ghost behind you! Get away!" she said urgently.

"Hurry Skuld!" Peorth said from somewhere. Since she was too confused to act, Noble Scarlet moved her away.

"Did you get hurt? Did it hurt you in any way?" Urd said. Belldadny just stared at the creature. Then she noticed the demon standing nearby, jaw agape.

"No, he didn't hurt Skuld. He saved her…" Belldandy said.

"What're you talking about? He was about to eat her!" Peorth said.

"No, Bell-chan is right. He protected me," Skuld explained. She pointed at the demon and said, "He's the one that attacked me."

"Bastard…" Urd said under her breath. "Urd specia-" before she could make a lightning strike, both the demon and the creature flared their wings. They started cirling each other and sparks stared flying. The light around Skuld's savior grew as the darkness around the demon consumed. They lingered in the air a bit, as if they were talking. Skuld looked closer and saw that they indeed were talking, but she just couldn't hear a word they were saying. At that moment, they rapidly gained hieght and went out of sight.

"Is it over?" Peorth asked, visibly shaken.

"I-I think so…" Belldandy said, equally shaken.

The sky burned.

Each of the Goddesses' angels automatically protected their hosts with their wings and shielded them from the great energy being expelled by the two great beings they had just seen.

_Kami-sama protect us…protect my Keiichi!_ Belldandy thought as tears in space were created.

"My God… what is happening?" Urd siad, fear evident in her voice. "It can't be the end of the world already!?"

Skuld blinked. No, the sky wasn't burning. No, the two beings weren't fighting in space, and there weren't any tears. They just dissapeared.

"Skuld-chan?" Belldandy asked, confused. "What are you doing here?"

_What was I doing here…_ Skuld thought, trying to remember. "I was going out shopping…" she said, her memories coming back. "What are you three doing here?" she asked, confused why the other three Goddesses were following her.

"Um…" Urd said. "Never mind," she said and teleported back home. The other two went home, though Belldandy lingered a little to give her a worried look.

_What was that about?_ Skuld wondered. Seeing no need to worry, she continued on, thinking about what she would make for Gab.

**(Behind some trees)**

"Good, their memories have been erased," the green haired God siad.

"Then our job here is done," Lind siad, sighing with releif. _One less thing to worry about. _"Time to finish hunting him down."

"Hai," the other five said and set out after their objective.

**Nekomi, Japan**

**October 2002**

**Morisato Residence:**

Skuld was _pissed_. After all the work she put into making the Onigiri, and the trouble she went through to surprise Gab at the university, he wasn't even there! It turned out that he had left for some emergency meeting at some country and wouldn't be back until the next week. _He should have told me at least!!!_ she brooded (actually, he called her but she was on her way to the university at that time, so he left a message on the answering machine that she didn't get to hear yet).

She was about to have some more nasty thoughts about him, but she heard the wind pick up outside. She went out to investigate and saw her sisters, Peorth, Hild and five other people waiting.

"So your mission had been completed successfully?" Belldandy asked.

"Yes," Hild siad. She and the two Goddesses that accompanied her teleported back. Then Skuld noticed something else, there was a tall God with red eyes among the group. When he noticed her, he gave her a smile. Then he closed his eyes and teleported to where the Goddesses went.

"Thank you again for your kindness," the God with the green hair said and bowed.

"Anytime," Belldandy said with her trademark smile. The boy stepped back to the circle where the other two boys were.

Before they dissapeared, she overheard one of the Gods say, "He seemed sad today…"

Skuld didn't know why, but she started crying. It was quiet at first, but then it became louder as tears dripped then flowed out of her eyes. Belldandy came up to her to try and comfort her while the other two Goddesses stood there wondering what was wrong with her. But for some reason, when Belldandy came up to her, she cried even harder as she held onto her sister for dear life.

**Egypt**

**Late October 2002**

**Somewhere In The Desert:**

_Shit!_

Gab barrelrolled left as three SAM's flew past. He stopped in time to miss crashing into an AAM. He turned the Talon until it was upside down and yanked down hard. Within seconds, the SAM site was within his bearings and he dropped a laser-guided smart bomb at it. The loss of the ballast jolted the aircraft upward and made him miss a short burst of caonnon fire from an incoming enemy aircraft.

Trying to see through eyes burning from sweat, he locked on a sidewinder missle at the enemy and shot him down. There were three more enemies left, but he knew it wouldn't be as hard to defeat them with the SAM site gone.

"Talia, prep the RAM jets," Gab said to the green haired woman co-piloting the Talon with him.

"Hai, Anata…" she said affectionately.

_She still won't stop that… _Gab mentally sighed. _Nichevo,_ he thought, choosing a fitting time to use the Russian word for "_It can't be helped."_ He had the aircraft upright and blasted the afterburners. The sudden increase in thrust pushed Gab into his seat, but he didn't just take it. He yanked up so hard that the aircraft was nearly vertical. The burners somehow provided enough thrust to push them above the enemy aircraft's ceiling, but Gab wasn't done yet. _Lets see if our work was in vain, Professor Kakuta,_ Gab thought as he pushed the bright yellow button recently added to his panel.

Ducts from the side of the aircraft opened and the fuel burned even hotter then before, causing the Talon to go up even higher.

"Approaching Inonosphere," Talia said through the comm. "It seems that your mission was a succes, Ananta."

"Yeah," Gab replied, not as joyfully as he could have. "Lock on all enemy fighters and fire," Gab ordered as he pitched the plane down. He cut off the jets so that the fall wouldn't happen too quickly and Talia would have ample time to lock on the enemies.

"Lock and fire," Talia said as three vessels of death screamed down. They embraced their targets so quickly, that the only things that betrayed their existance was the smoke from their spent fuel and the fiery flowers they painted into the sky when they met their fate. "Radar clear, we can proceed with the mission."

"Good," Gab siad. He transferred all controls to Talia and prepared to be ejected. When they reached the target area, a few meters from the annihilated SAM site, Gab pulled the ejection chord and was thrust out of the aircraft. He unstrapped himself from the seat and left air resistance slow him down sufficiently. When he thought he had decellerated enough, he pulled the parachute's chord and felt it suddenly slow him down.

_My organs…_ Gab thought morosely, thinking about the strain they had just gone through. _I had too many g's for too long and I've been flung this way and that too much. This body can't take punishment like this… unlike Talia,_ he thought bitterely. He knew it was a hot drop, so he took out his AR and hooked his Uzi to his vest in case he needed to pull it out quickly.

Man was it hot! Not only did he have the sun scorching him, he also had at least five gunmen with Soviets shooting at him. They didn't have great accuracy, but who needed accuracy to shoot something as big as a parachute. Before he went back to freefall, Gab managed to shoot two of the gunmen. He fell down, _hard_, but was slightly cushioned by the sand. Unfortunately, that made it hard for him to get his footing in the slippery stuff, and let one of the gunmen get his left forearm.

Gab ended his life with no mercy and then screamed in pain. That got the attention of the dead man's friends, which ended up with them randomly shooting in his direction. Fortunetely, Gab had already dashed into the cover the dead man used and sniped the two remaining gunmen one by one.

He took out his knife and cut out a strip of cloth from the dead man a few inches from him, his freshly spilled blood boiling from the desert sun. He tied it over his fresh wound and hoped for the best. _Lets hope something doesn't infect me for once!_

He quickly dashed to the remains of the SAM site he ruined, in hopes that if anyone else was alive, they wouldn't notice him. _Where is it???_ Gab deserately thought as he searched for the entrance to the underground bunker. "There!" he exclaimed when he could discern the hidden door. He blasted the lock with a small C-4 charge and quickly climbed down the reinforced shaft.

_First go to the lab_, Gab thought, mentally reviewing his objectives. _Take plans and destroy prototype._ _Can't be that hard. I did it with the American's early rocket experiments, didn't I?_

Finding the lad was easy; the first corner he turned led directly to it. Fortunately, noone was there, so he could quietly so his work without having to kill people. _Fortunately, right._

Gab hacked into the mainframe 007 style and uploaded the data to the Talon's databanks. When Talia gave him the all clear, he left a C-4 charge big enough to level a skyscraper set to ten minutes hidden near the mainframe. _Now for the prototype, _Gab thought. It was just as easy; the mainframe had it all stored in there. Gab discreetly went through a few rooms and corridors, shooting a few people with his silenced Uzi, and found the prototype.

He laughed.

_All this for this piece of crap?_ He thought when he saw it. He held it in his right hand and put it up to his face. He jumped back when it opened its eyes.

"Hi! Me Furby. I play with you…" it said, its eyes glowing red. Gab quickly pointed it away from him just as it shot.

"God Almighty!" he said, throwing it on the ground and shredding it with his silenced Uzi on automatic. _What kind of toys to kids play with these days?_ Gab thought in amazment.

"Time to get going, Anata," Talia said over the comm.

"Damn, how much time till that C-4 goes?" he said, realizing he'd been in the bunker for quiet some time.

"Oh… about three minutes…" she said playfully.

"Three!!!" he exclaimed and ran like hell. He hustled as fast as he could and climbed out of the shaft within seconds of its exploding.

**(In The Lab)**

"With this, we can force the American President to bend to our will," Heinrich Drucker said with disposition.

"Indeed," Lui Mei said, a thin smile forming on her lips. "Who would think one of the strongest men on earth would succumb to something as childish as a toy animal?"

"I did," Otto Schorzeny said coldly.

"Hahahahaaaaa" they all laughed like a bunch of evil super villains. Who were very evil.

"Bang, bang, you're dead," someone near the mainframe said, wild western style.

"Who was that? Show yourself!" Otto siad, he gun up in nanoseconds. Lui Mei daringly made her way to the mainframe, he gun ready and looked with concern at what she found. She picked up something and showed it to Otto.

His face turned very, very pale.

_Shit!_ he thought as the C-4 charge blew up in his face.

**(Back At The Surface)**

Gab wiped his forehead when the pillar of smoke and fire blasted out of the shaft not because it was so hot outside, but because his mission was over and he wasn't shredded up like at Volvograd. He shuddered, thinking back to what happened at Volvograd.

"Ritz crackers now have cheese," Gab said over the comm, the code words to tell Talia to extract him. He headed to the pre-determined evac-point and stood, waving to the air so Talia would notice him. The Talon quickly came into view, but something was wrong. Horribly wrong; the fighter's special cannons were extended down and forward, like the talons of a falcon to its prey and it was hovering with its VTOL abilities.

She fired.

He flattened himself on the ground with speed that only came from training or experience. He started shooting back with his AR, but realized that she was shooting behind him. He turned back, and sure enough, there was another bunch of enemies with a lethal set of weaponry pointed at the Talon. They had a few stingers with them and fired them at the Talon. Talia manged to shoot down most of them, but missed one. Gab brought his gun to bear, and blasted the little bundle of joy mere meters from the Talon's canopy. He could see Talia's face and it was one full of gratitute.

Then fear.

Suddenly, he couldn't feel his arm. He looked to it and saw that it was a few feet away from him, blood still spewing from it. He felt something hit his side, as if he were suckerpunch. Then everything went black.

**(Talon's cockpit)**

Talia stared in horror as one of the enemy started shredding Gab apart after he noticed him shoot at the stinger. Talia could not longer keep her rage in check and emptied all of the rocket pods. She quickly VTOLed the Talon as close to Gab as she could, jumping out of the cockpit as the computer finished touching ground. She ran to him and checked for vitals. _Thank God, he's still alive._

She checked his status and saw that he was critical and would die soon if she didn't do something. She smiled devilishly, stripping him, then herself. _I guess I'll have to nurse you back to health again, Anata, just like at Volvograd._ She gently put her naked body over his as she started the healing…

(O)

I know… I didn't update for so long… and what's worse is that these chapters have been sitting on my hard drive, collecting dust…

Oh well… I hope you all enjoyed them anyway. They seem so childish now, after all the work I've done with my Love Hina stories, but I still like it and plan on updating sometime in the future…

Remember; click the 'Go' button on your way out. (Flames are understandable and especially welcome if critical)

Cheers! )


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